I received a roadmap of sorts recently. The information went on to describe whatâ€™s going on with a few of the new lenses supposedly coming from Canon, as well as some camera body information.

135 f/2L II
There is a replacement in development, and a prototype exists. However, it is not slated for release for a year or two. The current 135L sells well, and is very high performance.

35 f/1.4L II
The prototype exists and is slated for a 2011 announcement.

24-70 f/2.8L II
Apparently 5 versions of this lens exist. A few even have IS. It is slated for a 2011 announcement. The patent weâ€™ve seen says no IS.

300 f/4L IS II
Expect this lens to arrive sometime in 2011 or early 2012. If what is mentioned next is true, then f/4 lenses may become more in demand as photographers aim to carry a lighter camera bag.

APS-H & ISO
The 1.3 crop will be going away. All cameras going forward will be APS-C and full frame. The ISO performance of upcoming cameras from Canon will be industry leading. This is in part because of sensor technology advancements as well as DIGIC V.

CRâ€™s Take
All of this is pretty plausible. I do expect Canon to have a couple of surprises up their sleeves. Weâ€™ve seen that recently with the zoom fisheye and the 200-400 with the 1.4 teleconverter built in.

300 f/4L IS II Expect this lens to arrive sometime in 2011 or early 2012. If what is mentioned next is true, then f/4 lenses may become more in demand as photographers aim to carry a lighter camera bag.

Or, aim to carry a heavier wallet after buying a new lens...

Personally, instead of a refreshed 300/4 IS, I'd vastly prefer a 400mm f/5.6L with IS for under $2K, or better yet a 500mm f/5.6L IS for $2.5K.

The 1.3 crop will be going away. All cameras going forward will be APS-C and full frame. The ISO performance of upcoming cameras from Canon will be industry leading. This is in part because of sensor technology advancements as well as DIGIC V.</p><p><strong>CRâ€™s Take

Well I do hope that the ISO improves as well with the increase in MP that we are no doubt going to be seeing. Usually they release cameras with bigger MP that matches or slightly edges the prior model, however this is barely "industry leading". I will welcome this industry leading technology as long as it doesn't smudge details like the 5D MII and looks natural if and when it does, like the 7D. Nothing quite ruins high ISO shots with heavy unnatural digital noise.

300 f/4L IS II Expect this lens to arrive sometime in 2011 or early 2012. If what is mentioned next is true, then f/4 lenses may become more in demand as photographers aim to carry a lighter camera bag.

Or, aim to carry a heavier wallet after buying a new lens...

Personally, instead of a refreshed 300/4 IS, I'd vastly prefer a 400mm f/5.6L with IS for under $2K, or better yet a 500mm f/5.6L IS for $2.5K.

Couldn't agree more. Light and less fast is fine for telephoto shooting. IS is eminently useful.

Personally, instead of a refreshed 300/4 IS, I'd vastly prefer a 400mm f/5.6L with IS for under $2K, or better yet a 500mm f/5.6L IS for $2.5K.

I think you mis-spoke, my wallet gets a lot lighter after buying a new lens

The lenses you mentioned would be great, except that the minimum focus distance for the 400 and 500 could be shorter as well. Since that tends to make a lens longer, the shorter mfd won't happen. MFD on the existing 300mm f/4 is fantastic.

IS does help, but in the case of my 35mm L and 135mm L, I have not really needed it, I tend to need high shutter speeds for the 135mmL due to subject motion in any event.

Certainly, many users do want it and can benefit from it on shorter focal lengths. My 100mm L is a pleasure to use hand held for closeups at only a few inches from the subject. I tended to get a lot of moton blurred photos with the old 100mm USM. Part of it was due to the slow focus, I often found myself closing the shutter after 2-3 seconds, only to find that the lens still had not found focus. (AI-Servo)

I think you mis-spoke, my wallet gets a lot lighter after buying a new lens

Mine too, but my point was it would be a lot heavier after buying an f/4 lens than if you'd bought the equivalent focal length in an f/2.8 - I rather suspect the popularity of f/4 lenses is less due to their lighter weight and more due to the lighter impact they have on wallets.